We’re Sinking: A Pirate’s Dilemma Components Overview and Impressions
Cooperative-Competitive games are generally not things I enjoy, especially if played with the wrong person. While Castle Panic is a great game, giving the “win” to whomever kills the most monsters might make some players purposefully lose if they don’t feel they can win. We’re Sinking: A Pirate’s Dilemma has a similar idea, although the game is much more competitive than cooperative.
That said, this isn’t our game review so you’ll have to wait to see what I think of it. What we are here to discuss, however, is the game’s components and whether or not they live up to the price you are paying. Thanks to outstanding components and a great insert, the value here is quite outstanding.
There are a lot of cards in We’re Sinking, and those cards are pretty solid. I always talk about cards in one of two ways: those I need to sleeve and those I don’t. The card quality here isn’t the best I’ve seen in a board game, but even with tons of shuffling, I don’t think these cards require sleeving unless you plan to play this a dozen times per year. They feel great to hold, and great to shuffle. The art and iconography on the card is fantastic as well, which makes playing the game much more enjoyable.
Thankfully, there aren’t really a lot of cardboard components in this game – a few treasure tokens and a few other tokens are stored in little compartments in the box, and you’ll also use cardboard circles to create 6 player dials. The dials are fantastic, and use plastic central pieces to hold them together. They spin with a bit of friction, which is ideal – you won’t accidentally spin these dials, which I’ve found to be the problem in many recent games I’ve played.
The art on the central board is a bit bland, although it serves its purpose of being a place to store cards and the plastic ship. The ship, though, is phenomenal, and comes apart into a few different layers to represent the sinking process. Yes, players are working together to stop the ship from sinking…or are they? Review soon!
The ship also has two masts and sails for those masts as well, so when it’s all setup on the table, it really is a gorgeous game that will make people stop and look.
It’s the art I’ve come to love. I love the box design, but the monster design on the various cards is outstanding. It is a nice blend of cartoony and edgy, giving monsters a unique look that, once again, looks great on the table. The character art on character cards is phenomenal as well. As we said, there isn’t a ton of art in this game, but when it’s on full display it’s really cool.
What I love (almost) the most about this production, though, is that the game comes with a custom insert. The insert has a place for all the tokens, all the cards sorted out by their type, the entire ship, masts, and sails, and the dice (we will get to those). And as a bonus, the box has a TON of extra room inside to store future expansions, one of which is currently available to preorder on Lucky Duck Games official website. Further, while we are big on recycling in our family, it still makes me upset when I’m ditching tons of plastic and punchboards into the bins each week. The design team has a solution for that, and suggests consumers use the punchboards to lift the insert to create a snug fit when everything is stored properly. This will allow you to stack the game sideways on your shelf, even with the cards in open bins!
My favourite part of any board game is the dice, and We’re Pirates comes with lots of them. To be honest, when I was unboxing the game I fully expected the dice to be screen printed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these dice were actually etched, which means they are going to hold up SO much better long term. This alone makes me understand that the design team really wanted to make a fabulously produced title, not just so it would look good on the table, but so that it would also last a long time.
Overall, I think the money you are spending on this game is well worth it from a production point of view. Stay tuned to see what we thought of the game’s turn-to-turn structure, and whether we had fun or not with the experience!
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Article By Adam Roffel
